Local welfare schemes are aimed at people in short-term crisis – offering support at times such as a sudden bereavement, a broken boiler, or having to move out of a rented home.

Devon County Council passed £1.4m on to its eight district authorities in 2013-14, but by 2016 five had cut their support.

Among them was South Hams District Council, which said it closed the scheme when funding ran out.

Janie Moor, the chief officer of Citizens Advice for South Hams, said the focus was now “keeping a roof over someone’s head” through alternative funding schemes such as Discretionary Housing Payments and council tax payments.

One CAB advisor with 15 years of experience in South Hams said losing the LWAS has caused “a lot of problems”.

She added: “A lump sum was allocated at the beginning of the [financial] year so we knew that if we made an application for a client in April or May we had a good chance of getting something, but if it was in February the money would have run out.”

“You were always expected to get second-hand stuff, but it was better than nothing.”

In response, senior councillor Hilary Bastone said: “We continue to do our best to help wherever we can, within our limited budget.”

Charity research

Church Action on Poverty questioned 163 councils in 2018, receiving responses from 153.

It found more than 20 English councils had closed their funds, including Bexley, Bournemouth, Haringey, Hillingdon, North East Lincolnshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshire, North Lincolnshire and Nottingham.

Only Islington and North Tyneside are believed to have increased the level of funding since 2013.

Church Action on Poverty is now calling on councils to maintain or strengthen their crisis support, while also asking for new laws to force authorities to provide grants, loans and in-kind help when people need it.

In Lincolnshire, where LWAS support ran dry in December 2016, the county council said support had continued in other ways.

Sue Woolley, executive councillor for community engagement, said: “This year, as well as providing £278,000 in core funding for the Citizen’s Advice service, we have provided one-off additional funding of £53,000 to provide additional support relating to welfare reform, including Universal Credit.”

But Simon Hoare, chief executive of Lincoln’s Acts Trust, a charity that runs a furniture project and offers financial advice, said even though charities and local groups tried to meet the basic needs such as food and furniture there were still gaps in support.

Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak MP said: “Local authorities are democratically-elected, independent bodies that are responsible for setting their own budgets and managing their resources in line with local priorities, which can include Local Welfare Provision Schemes.”